ISS overhead pass long exposures (Warning: large images)

[Regolith]

The ISS is making some particularly bright (~ -3 magnitude) appearances this month, so I decided to take some pictures. These are all 10 second exposures, except for the last one, which was 8 seconds.

I was expecting it to appear in the west, but it ended up coming from north-northwest, so I was caught a bit flat footed and wasn't able to take the first photo until it had nearly reached the zenith.





What happens when you accidentally bump your tripod on a long exposure: 



And the ISS departs into the night:

[Doggy Daddy]

I never realized it was so LONG!   












 

[drewtam]

I never realized it was so LONG!   

Its due to relativity, as discovered by Einstein. As an object goes faster and approaches the speed of light, it appears to get longer to an outside observer.

 

[Jamisjockey]

I never realized it was so LONG!   

That's
what
she
said.

[BobR]

We have been getting it overhead for quite a few nights lately, SWMBO was pretty excited about it last noght, and it flew by about 9:30P, before our bedtime.

bob

[AJ Dual]

That's
what
she
said.

I was going to dig a photo of Steve Carrel out of photobucket and post it, but I was too lazy...

[Perd Hapley]

Oh, great, there's a monolith floating around up there.

[RocketMan]

Just made another pass overhead a minute ago.  -1.9 magnitude, nice and bright, fairly high at 41° elevation, moving W to NNW.  Good view through binoculars.
It's making another pass tomorrow night, -2.6 magnitude and at 56°.  I may get the telescope out for that one.

[BobR]

I have tried 7x50 binocs, and all I get is a bigger dot of light. 

bob

[230RN]

Looks like they bailed out after you hit that tripod.  I can hear them now... "Holy crap!  What was that? ! ? "

<nyuck-nyuck-nyuck>

[Devonai]

Oh, great, there's a monolith floating around up there.

That's the first thing I thought of, too.  

[birdman]

I have tried 7x50 binocs, and all I get is a bigger dot of light. 

bob

For most terminator lit views, the station is 700-900km away, or more.  Human eye resolution is about 1-2mrad (full open pupil), so a "pixel" is miles across at that range.  With 7x magnification, you are still around 1km resolution.

On a clear, good viewing night, to see structure on it, you will need a resultution of about 1-2 microrad, meaning a 10-20" telescope, and then, its going to be a very fuzzy blob.

Think about it this way, you are trying to see shapes on something the size of a small office building in Boston, when looking at it from DC.  :)

[Sergeant Bob]

We have been getting it overhead for quite a few nights lately, SWMBO was pretty excited about it last noght, and it flew by about 9:30P, before our bedtime.

bob

Sure wish it would fly over my house!

[RocketMan]

Sure wish it would fly over my house!

You obviously haven't paid for the flyover service.  It's pretty cheap.

Seriously, check Heavens Above for flyover times at your location.  They have orbital data for lots of other birds and astronomical viewing predictions, as well.

[BobR]

For the ISS I use spotthestation.nasa.gov , they send me an email when it will be doing a flyover in my area.

bob

[Ben]

For the ISS I use spothtestation.nasa.gov , they send me an email when it will be doing a flyover in my area.

bob

That's what I use. I've noticed a lot more notifications over the last couple of weeks than is the norm for me. I reckon it's just a good West Coast viewing time. :)

[RocketMan]

"Due to sequestration budget cuts, the ISS has been temporarily parked.  It will not be over flying your area until budgets are restored."   

[birdman]

"Due to sequestration budget cuts, the ISS has been temporarily parked.  It will not be over flying your area until budgets are restored."   

You'd be amazed how many people (including some congressmen/women on important and apropos committees think satellites can hover over an area (neglecting GEO ones with N/S station keeping).

The world is a sad and dumb place.

[Tallpine]

For the ISS I use spotthestation.nasa.gov , they send me an email when it will be doing a flyover in my area.

bob

The view goes both ways, ya know 

[Sergeant Bob]

For the ISS I use spotthestation.nasa.gov , they send me an email when it will be doing a flyover in my area.

bob

I'm subscribed to that as well.

You obviously haven't paid for the flyover service.  It's pretty cheap.

Seriously, check Heavens Above for flyover times at your location.  They have orbital data for lots of other birds and astronomical viewing predictions, as well.

Thanks for the info.

[HankB]

The BEST website I've found for tracking celestial events is this:

http://www.heavens-above.com/

Enter your location, either by city or log/lat, and it will tell you when the ISS or any of a number of other satellites will be over YOUR house, the direction of flight, azimuth, etc. There's also planetary information.

One of my favorites are Iridium flares, but if you're in a big city, you really should use log/lat for best results, as the brightness of the flare varies quite a bit with distance.

Remember when an astronaut "lost" a tool kit? The ISS flew almost directly over my house right afterwards, and with 7x50 binocs I could see a very faint dot preceding the ISS in its orbit; completely invisible to the naked eye, and dim through binoculars, it wasn't a ghost image in my optics. So I figure I saw the tool kit. 

[birdman]

The BEST website I've found for tracking celestial events is this:

http://www.heavens-above.com/

Enter your location, either by city or log/lat, and it will tell you when the ISS or any of a number of other satellites will be over YOUR house, the direction of flight, azimuth, etc. There's also planetary information.

One of my favorites are Iridium flares, but if you're in a big city, you really should use log/lat for best results, as the brightness of the flare varies quite a bit with distance.

Remember when an astronaut "lost" a tool kit? The ISS flew almost directly over my house right afterwards, and with 7x50 binocs I could see a very faint dot preceding the ISS in its orbit; completely invisible to the naked eye, and dim through binoculars, it wasn't a ghost image in my optics. So I figure I saw the tool kit. 

How do you know it wasn't a ghost image?

[roo_ster]

How do you know it wasn't a ghost image?

Because he was able to resolve the letters S N A P O N  on the object.

[RocketMan]

You'd be amazed how many people (including some congressmen/women on important and apropos committees think satellites can hover over an area (neglecting GEO ones with N/S station keeping).

The world is a sad and dumb place.

Sigh...you are so absolutely right, birdman.  Scary sad and dumb.

[HankB]

How do you know it wasn't a ghost image?

It didn't move relative to the ISS regardless of what part of the FOV the ISS was in. It also remained visible when placed at the edge of the field, while the ISS was outside the FOV. Also, OTHER objects did not produce ghost images.